Wexler Paves Way To Stop Road Work

Sen. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, has persuaded the Department of Transportation to put the brakes on a turnpike bridge project that would affect his neighborhood.

After meeting with Wexler, DOT Secretary Ben Watts last week ordered his engineers to re-examine the $5.9 million expansion of the Clint Moore Road overpass.

DOT officials had planned to widen the bridge from four to six lanes to accommodate future expansion of Florida's Turnpike, and to widen the Clint Moore road opening so that road also may be expanded. Neither road, however, is scheduled to be widened in the next five years.

Paul Hiers, DOT's project engineer, said the existing bridge was built in 1965 and needs to be strengthened, in part because of increased traffic and in part because several trucks have crashed into the overpass.

"It was not intended to service the kind of traffic we have now," Hiers said at a public hearing on the project last June.

But Wexler argued the 22-month bridge project should be done at the same time as the mainline expansion to minimize the impact on the neighboring communities, St. Andrews, Woodfield Country Club, Long Lake Estates and Horseshoe Acres. Wexler lives in Horseshoe Acres.

"The people in these four communities would be subject to construction for a fouror five-year period, which is totally unreasonable," he said.

Wexler said he and his close friend Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton - a Long Lake Estates resident - have been trying for months to get Watts to reconsider. They got no response until last week, when Wexler threatened to sponsor an amendment cutting the cost of the project from DOT's budget.

"It got their attention," he said.

Turnpike spokeswoman Kim Poulton said DOT engineers will study whether safety can be improved with interim measures such as signs and flashing lights on Clint Moore Road, and with new bracing for the bridge instead of a total reconstruction.

Poulton said construction definitely won't begin as scheduled in early 1996, but DOT has not yet scrubbed the project completely.

"It's being taken out of the five-year work program, but it could be put back in next year," she said. "If the county widens [Clint Moore Road), or the turnpike widens, then you'll have to accommodate that."

Wexler said he supports the eventual expansion of the turnpike because it is a critical hurricane evacuation route. And the proximity of his own home to the turnpike did not affect his lobbying.